Joshua Tree National Park, California

Joshua Tree National Park is near Twentynine Palms, San Bernardino, California. The park was established on October 31, 1994 covers 1235 square miles and is host to nearly 1.4 million visitors each year. It has been designated as a national monument since 1936. It's made up of portions a the Mojave and Colorado Desert the Mojave being the larger of the two. The park is named after a tree found in the Mojave desert called the Joshua Tree. Hiking, Camping, and Rock Climbing are popular activities as well as stargazing due to the parks lack of light pollution. The park contains wildlife such as lizards, squirrels, birds, sheep, rats, coyotes, rabbits, and snakes. The park is open 365 days a year 24 hours a day but vistors tend to lean towards the fall and spring due to the high temperatures in summer.

Joshua Tree National Park Info

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News

Park officials announced the reopening of Cottonwood Campground (loop B) after repairs were made due to damage by heavy rains. Access to the park of off I-10, via Pinto Basin Road is reopened. Visitors are asked to exercise caution when entering and exiting the park through the south entrance due to a short distance of single lane traffic and road repair crews working in the area. Cottonwood Oasis Trail and the parking lot at the trailhead will remain closed until further notice. For more information, call 760 367-5522.

The Park set new records this year in visitation during the Thanksgiving season. All 540 campsites were full and the west entrance experienced mile-long backups getting into the park. In all, the park hosted over 22,000 visitors from Thursday to Sunday over the holiday week.

Joshua Tree National Park Photos

Ford Mustang @ Joshua Tree National Park

Geminids in the Clouds 3503-etc

In case you were wondering, this is the night sky when the forecast is "mostly clear" on its way to "partly cloudy". Actually, it looked much worse than this image shows because it got tweaked in Lightroom, in particular, the "dehaze" slider did wonders. This was nearing the peak time of the Geminids meteor shower but the clouds were moving in so this was my ending effort, about 40 minutes around the midnight hour. This is a composite of 5 frames, 6 meteors in there, including that humongous whacked-out thing there at the left edge. Joshua Tree National Park.

Joshua Tree National Park, CA

Penguin and the Juniper

Joshua Tree National Park has several areas that are photographed over and over again, this is one of those places. Completely overcast, the light was very flat. This is an HDR built from 7 images with a 6 stop spread. Merged in ON1 Raw and edited in PS6.
D18L_29_HDR_2B

Joshua Stars.

I had pulled over on the side of Park Blvd., right around Big Sheep’s Pass. It was later at night, right before midnight if I remember correctly. I had planned on shooting a motion lapse over the course of a couple hours, but early clouds ruined those plans.

It was a colder night, around 30 degrees, the wind was kicking up from the wind as it always does. I heard a party in the distance, a couple miles away at a camp spot in the middle of nowhere.

Joshua Tree is best enjoyed after the sun sets, half the park truly is after dark.

Under My Umbrella.

This is atop Eureka Peak inside Joshua Tree National Park. You get a great view of the Morongo Basin and Palm Desert, all the way out to Interstate 10.

The large mountain peak in the distance is Mount San Jacinto. 10,834 feet above sea level. It is one of the Four Saints, a set of four peaks above 10,000 feet in Southern California naked after Saints.

It’s one of the largest gains of horizontal elevation in the contiguous US. Most California climbers and hikers regard ‘San Jack’ as one mountain every Californian needs to ascend.